Codes and Conventions

Radio trailers generally last for 30-60 seconds.

This includes a voice over, sound bites and taglines.

Sound effect is mainly used to capture the listeners attention. As radio trailers should usually be intriguing and add additional information.

Tend to use around 2-3 sound effects, which should always relate to the theme of the documentary topic.

Voice overs from documentaries are usually used to create expectation for the listener. For example, if a women voice is used within the radio trailer then the audience will expect a female voice over in the documentary. Also the voice over inter-cuts in the radio trailer throughout.

Voice overs tend to include:

Use of rhetorical questions

Introduce the documentary and the topic

Must be clear, formal and well spoken by using standard English.

Extracts from the documentary can be used to portray whats in the radio trailer to generate a link. As a result this provides a hint for the listeners for what may be discussed throughout the documentary.

Radio trailers will always end with a scheduling information for the documentary. Radio trailers will be advertised through this order: title, day, then time.

Also it should include the channel of which it will be aired on for the listeners to know.

The beginning of a radio trailer must be spoken clearly, in order to catch the audiences attention and the music used must be related to the topic.

The trailer should intrigue the listeners and make them interested to find out more, resulting in them watch the documentary.